Document reveals the thought of the Russian hard core, which struggles to influence the Russian position in the outcome of war
The secret services of a European country have obtained a document from a Russian Think Tank, close to the Federal Security Service (FSB), which draws the Russian plan: increasing tensions between Trump administration and its allies, continuing to exert efforts to dismantle the Ukrainian state and weaken the American business position. The main elements of the Russian strategy, shared by the newspaper, raise the curtain about how Kremlin’s hardest core prepares to address negotiations.
The document suggests various ways to delay the peace process and continue to advance Russian interests in the region, avoiding being the target of diplomatic and military reprisals of the White House. Think Tank argues that Kremlin should improve its negotiating position exacerbating US tensions with the European Union and China, while providing access to Americans to rare minerals in Russian lands, such as the Donbass region, which has vast reserves of these raw materials.
Although it is unclear whether the document reached the hands of the Russian President a few days later, on February 24, Vladimir Putin appeared in public to “cause amaze” by offering access to mineral exploration in Ukraine to US companies. The change in the Russian position happened precisely by the time Washington and Kiev negotiated the details of the agreement for the exploration of minerals in Ukraine.
Think Tank near FSB’s fifth service also argues that Russia must reject any possibility that peace maintenance forces will be sent to Ukraine and insist that Russian sovereignty in Ukraine’s occupied territories is recognized. It also stresses that Russia should try to create a “buffer region” by the border in Bryansk and Belgorod.
Asked by the Washington Post, Kremlin Dmitri Peskov’s spokesman says he does not “be aware” of the recommendations made by the document, classifying him as “contradictory”. However, a Russian academic, close to the Moscow elite, admits that these recommendations well reflect the Russian elite’s political consensus.
The authors of the document recommend that Russia focus on its initial efforts to recover relations between Moscow and Washington, through the diplomatic restoration of representations in its embassies. Days after the document was delivered, the Russian and American delegations announced an agreement to resume diplomatic relations on February 27.
To improve relationships with Trump and its executive, Think Tank suggests that Russia wakes up not highlighting its medium -range Ballistic missiles in Belarus, on the border with several NATO countries, in exchange for American promise not to highlight new weapons on the border with Russia. To lock the sending of US weapons to Ukraine, the document suggests that Russia commit not to send weapons to “non -friendly” countries to the US.
Think Tank argues that a maximalist stance on Ukrainian policy, with the dismantling of the state. It is not enough there to be political concessions and a complete rejection of the adhesion to the NATO, not even the holding of elections in the country with the authorized participation of pro-Russian parties. “In fact, the current Kiev regime cannot be changed from the interior of the country. Its total dismantling is required ”, can be read in the document.
